78 



THE INDIANA WEED BOOK. 



About 30 species of the family grow wild in the State, and 

 mostly- belong to two groups, viz.: (a) the cockles which have the 

 sepals united into a tube, many of them being also called "catch- 

 flies," on account of the sticky or viscid secretions on joints of 

 stems or calyx which they exude to prevent ants, small beetles and 

 other honey-eating intruders which cannot pollenize from creep- 

 ing up the stalks; (h) the chickweeds and sandworts, small white- 

 flowered herbs abundant in woods and along the margins of lakes 

 and streams, and having the sepals distinct or united only at the 

 base. With us only 4 members of the family are as yet trouble- 

 some. 



Agkostemma githago L, Corn Cockle. Purple Cockle. (A. I. 1.) 



Stem erect, 1-3 feet high, simple 

 or with few erect branches, clothed 

 with long, soft appressed hairs; leaves 

 linear, acute. Flowers solitary on long 

 axillary peduncles; petals pink or 

 purple-red, showy ; calyx lobes linear, 

 much longer than the petals. Seeds 

 black, kidney-shaped, & inch across, 

 prettily marked with spiny ribs. (Fig. 

 45.) 



Common in grain fields, espe 

 cially those of wheat and rye ; also 

 along railways, fence-rows, etc. 

 May-Sept. The seed contains a 

 poisonous principle, and if bread 

 be made of flour containing a high 

 percentage of the ground seed it is 

 often fatal to poultry and domestic 

 animals, and in man produces a 

 great irritation of the digestive or- 

 gans. Remedies for the weed: 



hand pulling or spudding from the wheat fields intended for seed ; 



careful screening of seed wheat, using a screen of 8 meshes to the 



inch ; proper rotation of crops. 



38. Silene antirrhina L. Sleepy Catchfly. Tarry Cockle. (A. N. 2.) 

 Stem slender, erect or ascending, simple or branched above, 8-30 

 inches high; basal and lower leaves spoon-shaped, narrowed into a stalk. 

 1-2 inches long; upper leaves linear and gradually reduced to awl-shaped 

 brads. Flowers in a loose terminal cluster; calyx egg-shaped, much en- 

 larged by the ripening pod, its teeth acute; petals pink, broader and 

 notched above. Seeds dark brown, kidney-shaped, marked with rows of 

 minute tubercles. 



Fig. 45. a, sprays showing flowers 

 seed capsule; b, seed three times natural size 

 (After Chesnut.) 



